130 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 210 



of Tippo-Tip, is far more important than Nyan- 

 gwe, being the place where caravans to Lake Tan- 

 ganyika are fitted out. Tippo-Tip, whom Lenz 

 had left at Stanley Falls, arrived at Kasonge about 

 the time of Lenz's arrival, and as he was going to 

 Zanzibar, Lenz feared that he would not be able 

 to get a sufficient number of men for his caravan. 

 Later telegraphic news informs us that Lenz was 

 compelled to abandon his intention of reaching Dr. 

 Junker and- Emin Pacha (Dr. Schnitzler), and a 

 short time ago the cable informed us of his arrival 

 at Zanzibar. He has crossed the continent from 

 the mouth of the Kongo to Zanzibar in less than 

 eighteen months. 



Lenz's remarks on the Arabian trade with Ur- 

 ua are of interest when compared with the views 

 Captain Cameron expressed at the London institu- 

 tion, on Jan. 11, 1887. While Lenz emphasizes 

 the difficulty the Kongo Free State and other Eu- 

 ropean powers will encounter by Tippo-Tip's pow- 

 erful influence in Kasonge and Urua, Cameron 

 thinks that, by following the Lomami, the London 

 missionary society's agents and the officers of the 

 Kongo Free State would soon reach this country, 

 and he expresses great hopes of their being able to 

 do away with the horrors of the slave trade which 

 prevails there owing to the Portuguese and Arabs. 



Lieutenant Webster, late commander of the 

 station of Stanley Falls, proposes to explore the 

 district between Adamaua and Kameroon. This 

 is the region which Robert Flegel tried to enter 

 from the upper Benue. Here the unknown area 

 almost extends to the coast, and the obstacles 

 arising from the hostility of the native tribes 

 have hitherto prevented all explorers from enter- 

 ing the continent. 



The Italian traveller, A. Franzoj, has detei*- 

 mined to abandon his intention of crossing the 

 Somal country, on account of the unsettled state 

 of affairs in that district. He will go to Zanzibar, 

 and proposes to follow Thomson and Fischer's 

 route thrQugh the Massai district. 



Dr. K. Jtthlke, of the German East-African 

 company, was murdered in Kismayu in the be- 

 ginning of December. After having purchased 

 Usagara and the neighboring countries in 1884, 

 he added to the possessions of the company, in 

 June and July, 1885, the district as far north as 

 the Kilimanjaro, and, on his last expedition, that 

 from Vitu to the mouth of the Yuba. 



Captain Eouvier, member of the joint commis- 

 sion of France and the Kongo Free State for de- 

 termining the boundary line of the possessions of 

 both states up to longitude 17^ E., has made a sur- 

 vey of his routes, which, it is hoped, will be a 

 great advance in our knowledge of the geography 

 of the Kongo River. His observations show that 



Stanley Pool is far smaller than it was supposed 

 to be, and that the positions of many places and 

 rivers require changing. 



Henry M. Stanley left Suez on Feb. 6, on the 

 steamer Navarino, for Zanzibar direct. 



The German East-African company has been 

 converted into a corporation by a committee of 

 the founders, merchants, and financiers. The 

 board of directors will hereafter consist of twenty- 

 seven members, three of whom are to be nomi- 

 nated by Prince Bismarck. The capital is to be 

 raised to 5,000,000 marks by a further issue of 

 shares. 



Arfierica. 



Dr. P. Ehrenreich and K. von Steinen sailed 

 from Hamburg last week for Brazil. They intends 

 to explore the southern tributaries of the Ama- 

 zon. 



Oceans. 



At a meeting of the Paris Academy of sciences 

 on Jan. 10, a report was given of experiments 

 made by the Prince of Monaco to determine the 

 direction of the North Atlantic currents. Of 169 

 floats thrown overboard 300 miles north-west of 

 the Azores, in 1885, 14 have been recovered, show- 

 ing a general south-easterly direction and a mean 

 velocity of 3.83 miles per 24 hours. Of the 510 

 floats thrown overboard in 1886, much nearer the 

 French coast, 9 have been recovered, showing 

 nearly th e same direction, with velocities of from 

 5.80 to 6.45 miles. — Nature, Jan. 20. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The plans of the Johns Hopkins university 

 have always had reference to the establishment of 

 a faculty of medicine whenever the Johns Hop- 

 kins hospital should be completed. The buildings 

 are nearly ready to be occupied, and arrangements 

 will be perfected for instruction in surgery and 

 medicine. Meanwhile, courses preliminary to the 

 study of medicine, especially in physics, chemis- 

 try, and biology, with the modern languages, are 

 provided in the philosophical faculty. The nucle- 

 us of the medical faculty, as now constituted, in- 

 cludes the president of the university, a professor 

 of pathology, a professor of physiology, a profes- 

 sor of chemistry, a lecturer upon hygiene, and an 

 associate in pathology. 



— During the past year the Institute of social 

 science of New York has held twenty meetings, at 

 which were presented and discussed the following 

 papers : ' The logical method of studying sociolo- 

 gy,' Mr. Parke Godwin ; ' An introduction to so- 

 cial science,' T. B. Wakeman, Esq.; 'Principles 

 that should control the interference of the state in 



